Since when did having your bikes stolen become an issue of national interest? If your extremely cheap bikes are getting persistently stolen, that tells me that you aren’t locking them well enough. Suppose you use a solid U-lock where almost everyone else at the same location uses cable locks. Unless your bike is significantly more expensive-looking than theirs, thiefs would not target your bike before theirs. Since, in my observation, almost every bike parked at MRT stations is locked with cable locks, I conclude that to get so many bikes stolen, you must be locking them quite badly (with lower security than your average bike-MRT commuter).
I pretty much regard locking your bike with a cable lock as the equivalent of leaving cash on a public bench. No one would think of writing to a national forum to complain that someone had stolen cash he’d left on a public bench. So why should anyone care that badly locked bikes are often stolen?
Types of lock aside…
I believe posting security cameras at the bicycle bay should provide deterrence to theft. That is.. *if* the-power-that-be is serious about promoting cycling as a means of commuting.
I’m not convinced that installing cameras is worth the cost. It might be cheaper overall to just persuade people to upgrade their locks (and educate them on the correct locking methods: note that locking your front wheel only is NOT one of them). Furthermore, people lock their bikes everywhere, not just at MRT stations. If they buy a good lock for themselves they can ensure safe lockups everywhere, instead of only at MRT stations. We can’t possibly install CCTVs everywhere so it’s better that the cyclist carries his own security device with him. I don’t see why taxpayers in general should foot the bills for negligent cyclists.
I’m a bit nonplussed by this issue, really — if they care about their bikes so much, why are they locking them so badly? In my unsympathetic moments I tend to see this as an unhealthy manifestation of the nanny state mentality.